WWE Superstar To Wrestle The Great Muta In Pro Wrestling NOAH

Earlier this year, it was announced that the legendary Keiji Muto, also known as The Great Muta, would be retiring early next year. Since then, he's been on somewhat of a retirement tour, wrestling primarily in NOAH, however Muto did make a one off appearance at AEW, helping former rival turned ally, Sting and his partner Darby Allin, defeat Buddy Matthews and Brody King of House of Black at "AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam." 

NOAH recently took to social media to announce a new stop on Muto's retirement tour, this time doing what seemed impossible. At Pro Wrestling NOAH's New Year's show on January 1, 2023, Muto, under guise of "The Great Muta," will go one on one with current "WWE SmackDown" roster member, Shinsuke Nakamura. 

"This is miracle," Nakamura tweeted in response to the announcement.

This is the first time "The King of Strong Style" will be wrestling outside of WWE since 2016, when he left his home promotion of New Japan Pro-Wrestling to join WWE. The last time a WWE Superstar wrestled for Pro Wrestling NOAH was when KENTA (then known as Hideo Itami) wrestled Naomichi Marufuji in September of 2018 at Marufuji's 20th Anniversary Celebration. 

There is plenty of history between Muto and Nakamura. When Nakamura was still in NJPW, he and Muto crossed paths in on a few occasions in NJPW, and one time in AJPW. Muto even defeated Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in April 2008.

After his match with Nakamura, Muto is set to team with AEW's Sting on January 22nd in Yokohama.